Thank you all for the input, what I'm getting is they all have their issues, good luck...

She is looking for strictly a DD maybe the dunes once a year but mostly a convertible road car, she had a POS yj when we met so she's trying to get back to the glory days.

Mine has no issues and I've had it nearly 6 years and 115K miles. Knock on wood. Best part about it...the heater is ready by the time I get 1/2 mile down the road on cold winter days. Much better than my CJ that I used to drive around with gloves and a winter coat to prevent from freezing to death.

That is probably not a bad plan. However when you start looking at the prices of these things a year old you are just better off spending a couple grand more and getting a brand new one.

From what I've read here and there the 12's have not been without motor issues. I'd look into that a little more before I bought one for sure.

The one thing I would do for sure is avoid the 11's. I don't know if it has gotten any better lately, but for awhile that was just a bastard year that no one built stuff for. If you notice a lot of stuff is for 07-10 and then 12-current.

very good point, I can get family pricing, and it seems to be about the same as people are selling used ones for. With such a high residual value, are the lease prices good? I haven't checked.

also from what a few of you have said, I might even look at some older JK's (with the mini van motor), I think that would work fine for my intended use ( DD, 2 tracking and taking the family to the beach on the dunes, maybe tow a pop-up...)

I rented a 2012 for her to drive for our anniversary this year and she is absolutely in love with the damn things now.
Being 6 ft and used to driving a 2012 f-150 crew cab i didn't care much for the interior but what i like doesn't matter in this equation.
So i just really want to know now what she'll be getting me into, seeings how someone is gunna have to maintain/repair the fucker